Nora D. Volkow, M.D., is Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health. NIDA is the world’s largest funder of scientific research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction.

Dr. Volkow’s work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a brain disorder. As a research psychiatrist, Dr. Volkow pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate how substance use affects brain functions. In particular, her studies have documented how changes in the dopamine system affect the functions of brain regions involved with reward and self-control in addiction. She has also made important contributions to the neurobiology of obesity, ADHD, and aging.

Dr. Volkow was born in Mexico and earned her medical degree from the National University of Mexico in Mexico City, where she received the Robins Award for best medical student of her generation. Her psychiatric residency was at New York University, where she earned a Laughlin Fellowship from The American College of Psychiatrists as one of 10 outstanding psychiatric residents in the United States.

Much of her professional career was spent at the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, where she held several leadership positions including Director of Nuclear Medicine, Chairman of the Medical Department, and Associate Laboratory Director for Life Sciences. Dr. Volkow was also a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Associate Dean of the Medical School at The State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Dr. Volkow has published almost a thousand peer-reviewed articles, written 113 book chapters, manuscripts and articles, co-edited “Neuroscience in the 21st Century” and edited four books on neuroscience and brain imaging for mental and substance use disorders.

She received a Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service, was a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal (Sammies) finalist and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Volkow received the International Prize from the French Institute of Health and Medical Research for her pioneering work in brain imaging and addiction science; was awarded the Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University; and was inducted into the Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) Hall of Fame. She was named one of Time magazine’s “Top 100 People Who Shape Our World”; one of “20 People to Watch” by Newsweek magazine; Washingtonian magazine’s “100 Most Powerful Women”; “Innovator of the Year” by U.S. News & World Report; and one of “34 Leaders Who Are Changing Health Care” by Fortune magazine.

Born in Naples, Italy on June 20, 1953.

MD (Naples, 1977); Specialist in Psychiatry (Naples, 1981); PhD in Behavioural Sciences (Umeå, Sweden, 1986).

Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples (1992-present). Professor of Mental Hygiene, University of Naples (1985-1992).

President, World Psychiatric Association (2008-2011). WPA Secretary for Publications (1999-2005).

President, European Psychiatric Association (2003-2004). Chairman, AEP/UEMS/ WHO/WPA Task Force (2003-2004). Coordinator, European Community Project on Burden on the Families of Patients with Schizophrenia (1994-1997). Coordinator, European Community Project on the Implementation of Psychoeducational Interventions for Families of Patients with Schizophrenia (2000-2004).

Founder and Editor of World Psychiatry, official journal of the WPA (impact factor: 79.683, ranking no. 1 among psychiatric journals and among all journals included in the Social Sciences Citation Index). Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK (2012). Honorary Fellow, American College of Psychiatrists (2013). Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Craiova (2010).

President, Italian Psychiatric Association (2000-2002). President, Council of Italian Professors of Psychiatry (1997-2000). President, Italian Society of Biological Psychiatry (1991-present). President, Italian Society of Psychopathology (2007-2013). Founder, Italian Society of Psychiatric Epidemiology (1983). Founder, Italian Society of Psychiatric Rehabilitation (1987). Counsellor, Italian Society of Neuroscience (1995-1999).

Member of the Italian High Council of Medicine (2006-2013). Member of the Italian Academy of Medicine (1997-present). Advisor for Mental Health to the Minister of Health (1998-present).

Active as a researcher and an educator on behalf of the World Health Organization in sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia and Latin America (1983-1991). Chairman, Section on Neuropsychiatry, Global Programme on AIDS, WHO Headquarters, Geneva (1989-1991). Director, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mental Health, Naples, Italy (1992-present).

Member of the Advisory Board for the Chapter on Mental and Behavioural Disorders of the ICD-11. Chairperson of the Work Group on Mood and Anxiety Disorders for the Chapter on Mental and Behavioural Disorders of the ICD-11.

Member of the Work Group for Mood Disorders of the DSM-5. Advisor for Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders to the Task Force for the DSM-IV and the DSM-IV-TR.

Author of more than 700 papers in scientific journals and many monographs. His H-index (Google Scholar) is 102.

Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the lead federal agency for research on mental disorders. He oversees an extensive research portfolio of basic and clinical research that seeks to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.

Dr. Gordon pursued a combined M.D.-Ph.D. degree at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Medical school coursework in psychiatry and neuroscience convinced

him that the greatest need, and greatest promise, for biomedical science was in these areas.

During his Ph.D. thesis with Dr. Michael Stryker, Dr. Gordon pioneered the methods necessary to study brain plasticity in the mouse visual system. Upon completion of the dual degree program at UCSF, Dr. Gordon went to Columbia University for his psychiatry residency and research fellowship because of the breadth and depth of the research opportunities there. Working with Dr. Rene Hen, Dr. Gordon and colleagues studied the role of the hippocampus, a brain structure known to be important for memory and emotional processes associated with anxiety and depression. He joined the Columbia faculty in 2004 as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry.

Dr. Gordon’s research focuses on the analysis of neural activity in mice carrying mutations of relevance to psychiatric disease. His lab studied genetic models of these diseases from an integrative neuroscience perspective, focused on understanding how a given disease mutation leads to a behavioral phenotype across multiple levels of analysis. To this end, he employs a range of systems neuroscience techniques, including in vivo imaging, anesthetized and awake behavioral recordings, and optogenetics, which is the use of light to control neural activity. His research has direct relevance to schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and depression.

In addition to his research, Dr. Gordon was an associate director of the Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute Adult Psychiatry Residency Program, where he directed the neuroscience curriculum and administered research training programs for residents. Dr. Gordon also maintained a general psychiatric practice, caring for patients who suffer from the illnesses he studied in his lab at Columbia.

Dr. Gordon’s work has been recognized by several prestigious awards, including the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation – NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the Rising Star Award from the International Mental Health Research Organization, the A.E. Bennett Research Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and the Daniel H. Efron Research Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Dr. Prabha S Chandra is the Dean, Behavioural Sciences and Senior Professor of Psychiatry at NIMHANS, Bangalore and is a past Head of Department.  She is the current president of the International Association of Women’s Mental Health and has been described as a champion for women’s mental health in India by the Lancet Psychiatry. Dr. Prabha developed the specialty of Perinatal Psychiatry in India by starting the first Mother Baby Inpatient Psychiatry unit which has become a model for several Low and Middle Income Countries. She has pioneered the integration of perinatal mental health in maternal health care in India by assisting several state Governments and is currently the co-chair of the USAID global Community of Practice for maternal mental health. She is a member of the high level Central Ethics Committee of the Indian Council for Medical Research. Dr. Prabha Chandra is known internationally for her research and advocacy in Women’s Mental Health.  She has around 320 journal publications and has published 12 books and 40 chapters. In the last two years she has been leading the ambitious Stree Manoraksha (Protecting Women’s Mental Health) Project (http://nimhansstreemanoraksha.in/project-stree-manoraksha/) in India and a Centre of Excellence for research in gender based violence and mental health.

She is Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK, Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, India and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. She has also been nominated as Fellow ad eundem of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 2023. Dr.Chandra has received the prestigious Marce Society Medal and the Professor Channi Kumar International Oration award of the International Marce society for perinatal psychiatry.

J. John Mann MD, is The Paul Janssen Professor of Translational Neuroscience (in Psychiatry and in Radiology) and a former Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. He is Director of Research and Director of Molecular Imaging and the Neuropathology Division at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Dr. Mann is trained in Psychiatry and Internal Medicine and has a Doctorate in Neurochemistry. His research employs functional brain imaging, neurochemistry and molecular genetics to probe the causes of depression and suicide. Dr. Mann is the Director of the NIMH Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders, and Past President of the International Academy of Suicide Research.

Dr. Mann has published 458 papers and edited 10 books on the subjects of the biology and treatment of mood disorders, suicidal behavior and other psychiatric disorders. In private practice he specializes in the treatment of mood disorders.

Helen Herrman is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Orygen and the Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, and Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre in Mental Health, Melbourne.  She is former president of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA – 2017-2020) and the International Association of Women’s Mental Health. She is appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Her research and development interests as psychiatrist and public health physician include promoting mental health, community mental health care, and women’s mental health. Previously she was Professor and Director of Psychiatry in St. Vincent’s Health Melbourne, and for a year acted as regional advisor in mental health for the WHO’s Western Pacific Region. She led the WPA’s action plan 2017-2020, concerned with supporting the contribution of psychiatrists to global mental health. Publications include the report as chair of “The Lancet-WPA Commission: time for united action on depression” published in 2022.